Top 7 biggest sleeping giants in the EFL Championship (Ranked) | OneFootball

Football League World ranks the seven biggest sleeping giants in the Championship right now...

The EFL is home to a plethora of traditional 'sleeping giants', many of which can be found throughout the Championship.

Inhabited by a variation of clubs who have grown stagnant, endured sharp falls from grace or are only just making their way back up in an effort to finally realise the potential at hand, so many sides in the second-tier meet the sleeping giant criteria and that's exactly what Football League World will be looking at here.

There is some nuance at play, which will be reflected in the selections as a focus remains on ranking SEVEN teams on how much they have failed to perform and match their potential as opposed to simply the biggest clubs outright, many of whom have enjoyed more recent success than other counterparts and will be ranked accordingly.

With that in mind, FLW has taken a close look at who the seven biggest sleeping giants in the Championship really are...

7 ? ? West Ham

A prime example of the aforementioned criteria, West Ham have a strong case to be recognised as the Championship's biggest club after returning to the division for the first time since 2012 at the end of the previous campaign.

That doesn't necessarily mean the Hammers are the most profound sleeping giant, though, having spent the vast majority of their recent history securing respectable mid-table finishes - or better - at the very highest level while ending their elusive trophy drought with a memorable run to the UEFA Europa Conference League title in 2023.

There's still a feeling that West Ham have not quite delivered on their potential when you look at the success enjoyed by the likes of Aston Villa and Newcastle United in recent years, although fans will be optimistic that such a trajectory could come before the club once they return to the promised land with Daniel Kretinsky now pulling the strings in an often-chaotic London Stadium boardroom.

West Ham's trophy cabinet doesn't feature a league title, but three FA Cup trophies and the Cup Winners Cup are all present and, with such a historic top-flight standing and a 60,000-seater stadium to call home, the Championship promotion hopefuls are most certainly a sleeping giant - even if others are failing to match their potential to a greater extent.

6 ? ? West Bromwich Albion

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Another club historically synonymous with the highest level, West Bromwich Albion have grown stagnant following their most recent relegation out of the Premier League in 2021.

The Baggies have not really threatened to return to the top-flight, and when you consider that the Baggies spent eight seasons in the division with three top-half finishes in the 2010s, it's hard to feel that they are situated in line with their overall potential.

The history books only further enforce that, with Albion having won the FA Cup on five separate occasions. With the trailblazing 'three degrees' legacy of trio Brendan Batson, Laurie Cunningham and Cyrille Regis during the late 1970s forming a fundamental part of West Brom's fabric, they are a club steeped in influence and history that extends firmly beyond the confines of English football's second-tier.

5 ? ? Middlesbrough

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Whereas West Ham and the Baggies have still tasted relative recent success, Middlesbrough have not graced the Premier League in close to ten years despite spending 15 years at that level since the division's 1992 inception and enjoying top-flight status for eleven successive seasons between 1998 and 2009.

The presence of neighboring Newcastle United and Sunderland in the north-east stronghold can often make Middlesbrough's club size and undoubted potential overlooked, with the Teessiders having only sealed major silverware on one occasion by defeating Bolton Wanderers in the 2004 EFL Cup final.

That very much coincided with Boro's eleven-year Premier League heyday, in which they made it all the way to the UEFA Cup final two years later, and with strong local support always behind them at the Riverside Stadium, the club's divisional footing and recent history doesn't match up to the potential - rendering Kim Hellberg's side a firm sleeping giant.

West Brom and West Ham are bigger clubs, but Middlesbrough's potential has failed to be realised on a larger scale.

4 ? ? Birmingham City

Birmingham City have also weathered a lengthy absence from the promised land, having never threatened to claw their way back since falling to relegation in the same season that they won the 2011 EFL Cup over Arsenal.

That's one of just two major honours to boast about on this side of the Second City divide after winning the same trophy back in 1963, with Birmingham spending much of their history living in the shadow of fierce rivals Aston Villa. And that's exactly what makes them a sleeping giant.

With a huge local catchment at their disposal and a sizeable loud-and-proud fanbase that has re-emerged following Knighthead's energising takeover of the club, Birmingham have long fallen short of living up to their potential and just seven Premier League seasons for an outfit of their stature backs that up.

It could all be very different in the future, though, with Blues holding lofty aspirations of ascending to the pinnacle of English football in the years to come and certainly yielding the financial resources to finally complete a Premier League return ahead of their blockbuster move to the proposed state-of-the-art 62,000-seater Powerhouse Stadium in the coming years.

3 ? ? Bolton Wanderers

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Bolton's recent return to the Championship has been warmly welcomed considering we're discussing a club who had performed and resided at a level far beneath their actual potential and historic success, yet the Trotters are still not where they should be by such metrics.

A bonafide sleeping giant, Bolton have won the FA Cup on four occasions and even have a Community Shield title for good measure, though it's the club's pulsating mid-2000's stint that everybody thinks about when they ponder the sleeping giant status of the north-west outfit.

Albeit without major honours, Bolton captured the hearts and minds of the nation under Sam Allardyce in particular as a host of huge global names rocked up at Wanderers throughout different seasons such as Nicolas Anelka, Ivan Campo, Youri Djorkaeff, Fernando Hierro and, of course, Jay-Jay Okocha, with the shock star-power at play sending the club on two blitzing runs in the Europa League and towards multiple top-half finishes.

Bolton's way was lost dramatically upon relegation in 2012 and chaotic crises behind the scenes would even see the Trotters fall all the way to League Two, and a seven-year exile from the Championship was lifted when they won the League One play-offs last season.

2 ? ? Derby County

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Derby County lack the trophy cabinet of others here, which only further solidifies the sleeping-giant feeling that has long lingered in this corner of the East Midlands.

The Rams made history for all the wrong reasons when relegation from the Premier League was suffered in 2008 with a record-low 11-point return that is likely to be repeated and they haven't made it back since. The history that Derby fans will want to be reminded of, however, is much more impressive and shows the scale of the club's underperformance in stature and potential.

Spearheaded by the great Brian Clough, Derby had languished in the second-tier before his appointment but would win the First Division title just three years after gaining promotion and then reached the semi-finals of the European Cup the following season before winning league honours again after the iconic manager's departure.

Derby quickly fell away after that and have not come close to matching such heights since, and just seven seasons of Premier League football is damning for a club with such history and stature.

A 33,500-capacity Pride Park stadium with frequent sell-out crowds and a raucous atmosphere that represents one of the best in the land retains the big-club feel and shows exactly how much potential Derby have if they can get it right.

1 ? ? Blackburn Rovers

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There's no bigger sleeping giant in the Championship than Blackburn Rovers, which boils down to the vast history and the dire recent struggles of the East Lancashire club.

Indeed, Blackburn can boast the most major honours of any second-tier outfit with ten, counting six FA Cup titles, one EFL Cup triumph and three top-flight successes.

Many of those trophies came before the First World War, in all fairness, although Blackburn are the only club in the division to have won the Premier League, having famously clinched the title ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United under Kenny Dalglish in 1994.

Bolton Wanderers, Portsmouth, Preston North End

That was followed up by winning the League Cup in 2001/02 after returning to the top-flight upon the turn of the millennium and Blackburn would spend more than a decade in the Premier League with frequent top-half finishes, but it's all been downhill since the Venky's took over and Rovers are yet to return to the level since 2012.

They haven't really come close to, either, having even dropped into League One in 2017/18, and it doesn't look like that will change anytime soon as significant fan unrest remains at large, though Blackburn are still a historically massive clubs with bounds of untapped potential - which many supporters now unfortunately fail to see, with Ewood Park's drab home attendances and atmosphere in recent years displaying the level of dismay and disillusionment.